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Who Are You Calling Disobedient? Mini-Research Project (Day 2 of 3)

Unit 4: Arguing with the Transcendentalists Mini-Unit
Lesson 2 of 7

Objective: SWBAT develop an argumentative outline into a Google Presentation which logically sequences the claim, counterclaim, reasons, and evidence, while using visual elements and conventions of slideshows to enhance effectiveness and clarity.

Today we're continuing on our mini-research project based on the essays of the Transcendentalists. Students will arrive with complete argumentative outlines and partially-complete Powerpoint presentations that we worked on last time.

The first few minutes of class, students will have the opportunity to ask me questions about the presentation or outline that they have encountered since the last class period. I like to build in time to gather student feedback in order to plan and account for common student issues, but I also feel that it is important that students know they have an opportunity in a group forum to ask questions and help one another as where they can to solve their problems. This environment feels more like a workshop than class, and students seem to thrive in this environment, especially on writing projects.

After any outstanding questions are answered, students will open their presentations and outlines and give their "pod" a 30-second "tour" of their project so far. My classroom is set up so that desks are grouped in three's, which I usually refer to as a "pod," so that when I need group work done quickly, I can use these pre-formatted groups. They still occasionally get to choose their own groups, but they generally work with their "pod" groups the most. The groups are changed each quarter, using learning preference information (gathered from the Canfield Inventory and Multiple Intelligence Survey given at the beginning of the year) to group students with similar or complimentary learning preferences. While students are giving their tours, I will be able to quickly ascertain students who have not done much on their projects and who may need extra attention to remediate skills today. It also reinforces the idea of regular "progress checks" in class to keep students accountable for completing their work outside of class and gives students the opportunity to gather informal feedback and encouragement from peers.

When students have completed their tours, I will open up the class discussion for students to offer one thing they learned or enjoyed about a group member's presentation or topic. All students will be required to say at least one thing positive about a peer's work.

Resources

Next, we will complete our discussion of the Elements of Argument Terms & Resources notes. Over the course of the last two class periods, we have discussed the first fifteen terms. Today we'll take a closer look at the final six terms, from "primary source" through "syntax." Students will review the definitions for primary and secondary sources, then come up with a list of three primary sources and three secondary sources that they might use for a research project about the Civil War. A sample of what I would expect to see from this discussion would look like:

Secondary Sources: history textbook, program on History Channel, reproduction of uniform

Next, we will discuss plagiarism, focusing on ways to avoid plagiarism and common misconceptions. I am building out a larger plagiarism lesson for early next semester, so I am really trying to do two things with this discussion: 1) prevent outright plagiarism, and 2) gather weaknesses and questions here that I can address in my later module.

To discuss infographics, which many students interact with but few know the term, we will view and evaluate an infographic, "Is Your Bachelor's Degree Worth It?" Before viewing for content, students will be instructed to determine the credibility of the infographic (which is credible, but often they forget that just because something looks fancy doesn't mean it's credible!) using the sources at the bottom of the page. During this section of lesson, I will ask students the following questions:

How can you determine if this source is credible? Students will likely say it is incredible because the information seems so contrary to what they have heard previously until a student points out the citation of graph's information as the Department of Education.

What stands out most within this infographic? How have the creators achieved this?Students are typically drawn to the figure in the center first and the "Starting Pay by Degrees" balloons on the right of the picture.

What is the overall message of the infographic? Students will point out that the message appears to be that students need to weigh the potential financial benefits of college with the growing expense of college in the coming future.

Does this infographic demonstrate bias? Why or why not? Students may say that it is biased or unbiased, but either way I will typically lead them to question what information did NOT appear on the graph and what may have been omitted (and if that matters to them as viewers!).

Why is this information format more appealing than an article or typical graph? Students usually report enjoying infographics since they are not as dry as other forms of information.

Are there any parts of this infographic that are unclear to you? What may clear those places up? Some students may say that the sections with more text are harder to understand unless the viewer also critically reads the statements in each section. Other sections, like the percentage of tuition increase, are clear even without reading anything extra.

How effective would this be in getting your attention as a casual reader? Most would say this would be more attention-grabbing than a regular article, but also that it would depend on how interested or motivated you were to go to college as well.

Why do you suppose the use of infographics has increased exponentially in the past few years? Students will have the opportunity to discuss how their reading habits have changed over the past few years, how the internet and other technology is involved with the transformation, and what may happen in the future. I can never really predict entirely what any class will say, as this is probably the most unique section of discussion. It always amazes me how many students long for the "old days," even when they have never really known them firsthand. (English geek sidebar: It reminds me of the Naomi Shihab Nye story "The Mint Snowball"!)

Finally, we will address transitions and syntax. For transitions, I will distribute the Transitional Words and Phrases handout for students to begin incorporating transitions into their presentations. To address syntax today, we will return our focus to the 6x6 requirement for the PowerPoint presentation, which requires students to play with the syntax of phrases to adhere to the length requirement while following conventions like parallelism. This limitation makes our syntax discussion even more relevant, and we will practice using student work "translating" longer phrases into shorter ones.

In the remainder of the class period, students will work to complete their argumentative presentations. Before turning them loose to work on these projects, I will distribute the Argumentative Presentation Project Rubric and review each of the six categories for scoring, allowing students to ask questions after each category to clarify their understanding of the evaluation tool.

Just like yesterday, I will circulate around the room to help students while they work. Most students will have a good chunk of the presentation completed, but they will be moving on to the "Notes" section of the presentation today. This section is very important to making the next step of recording the presentation a smooth one. As noted in the presentation template, students will be using the "Notes" section of the PowerPoint to transcribe exactly what they will say during the 3-5 minute presentation. Students will use myBrainshark to narrate and record the slideshow, and this platform will simultaneously display the slides that the viewer will see with the "Notes" section of the presentation that is only visible to the creator while recording. As a result, students will have a complete script to read with their presentation while recording slide movements as if they were presenting it in person! It might take students a few attempts to understand this concept, but I will emphasize that the presentation they are making will be like the visual aid for their speech, which will be written in the "Notes" section and recorded with myBrainshark. Eventually, I am confident the "lightbulbs" will go on! To help speed this process along and connect this task to a real-world application, I will play the tutorial from myBrainshark entitled "Writing a Compelling Script." After we watch the video, students will get to work on crafting this section of their presentation.

While writing the "Notes" section for each slide, students will be reminded to include relevant transitions to walk their listeners through their arguments and to avoid reading slides directly to the listener.

Resources (1)

Resources

In the final minutes of class today, we will connect as a group to answer any last-minute questions and outline expectations for students before the next class period. Students have had plenty of time to work on this project in class, so by next class period they must have a complete presentation within Google Presentation. This presentation should be something students are proud of and would be willing to turn in for a grade, but we will not be turning these in next class period. At the start of next hour, students will share their projects with a partner and complete a peer evaluation of their partner's work using the rubric with which I will also be grading them. We will then prepare for our final step, recording the project within myBrainshark, and revise and edit our work.

I will emphasize to students that peer review is most helpful when it is completed on work that is finished, so they should absolutely push to get these done to a point that they would be comfortable handing it in. Ultimately, students who arrive with incomplete work will be hurting themselves since they will lose the opportunity to have a peer review their work.

Before students arrive to class next hour, I will scroll through their shared folders to ensure that they have completed all or most of their project. Students that are markedly behind will be emailed to inquire if they need more assistance with the project during my "Extra Help" hours after school to get them back on track for this major assignment. They have been allowed plenty of time to work on this in class and outside of class, so there is really no excuse to have incomplete projects.